11 Feb 2019

The Government of Botswana wishes to express its concern regarding a news article, which appeared in the WeekendPost Newspaper dated Saturday 9th to 15th February 2019 under the headline: “Khama denies BDP Peace Deal”. 

Of concern to Government in the said article are the statements which appear on Page 3 of the newspaper, which are attributed to the Former President Lt. General Dr Seretse Ian Khama who is quoted saying;

“Some individuals continue to propagate rumours on plots to assassinate President Masisi and I challenge everyone with information to come forward. These are the same people who talked about false allegations about a coup d’état, which was going to be orchestrated by the Israelis. That was totally ridiculous and it was a lot of nonsense”.

In this regard, Government wishes to inform the public that if indeed it is true that these statements were made by the Former President, it is unfortunate and regrettable because matters regarding the security of the Head of State fall under the responsibility of security agencies.

Therefore, we would like to advise members of the public to refrain from making such public statements on issues pertaining to the security of the Head of State.

Carter N. Morupisi
PERMANENT SECRETARY TO THE PRESIDENT
AND SECRETARY TO CABINET